Continuing their onslaught of really cool looking indie games, tinyBuild are set to publish Bread Team’s Phantom Trigger, a hard as nails 2D hack-and-slash with roguelike and RPG elements tossed in for good measure. You’d forgive yourself if you thought it was a Hyper Light Drifter sequel, as Phantom Trigger seems to be going for that same aesthetic.
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There seems to be a greater focus on the RPG side of things in Phantom Trigger though, with the main character swapping through various weapons to deal damage. There seems to be an elemental attack system too, as you can freeze enemies within a block of ice before setting them on fire. Upgrading weapons and switching between your arsenal mid fight looks integral to Phantom Trigger’s combat, so look forward to making some overpowered weapons in the full game.
As for the roguelike elements, Phantom Trigger seems to have specially designed levels which contain “roguelike-style dungeons” according to its website. Whether that’s shorthand for “randomly generated” or is just means really hard dungeons, who is to say?
The really intriguing thing about Phantom Trigger has to be the ending of the trailer, where a man named Stan wakes up in what looks to be a psychiatrist’s office. This could suggest that these surreal worlds and adventures are all going on in Stan’s head, and that we are playing through these as part of his therapy sessions. This is all speculation but it provides a unique twist on what would be an otherwise standard glitchpunk setting.
There was no release date shown as part of this initial trailer, but curious players can now sign up for Phantom Trigger’s alpha should they wish to know more. We’ll no doubt learn more about this mysterious hack-and-slash upon the release of the alpha, so register if you are hungry for more information.